Saturday, December 22, 2007

Old World vs New World


http://www.hungary-tourist-guide.com/image-files/balaton_wineyard.jpg

Old world wines come from the “classic wine making regions” in Europe. New world wines come from everywhere else. Throughout this 2000+ year period growers were able to figure out which grapes grew best and which areas of land consistently produced the finest quality. Naturally the growers from these regions-France, Germany, Austria, Italy and Spain have some pride in this history. Many growers are descended from families that have been tilling the soil for generations. The picture showed a wine yard at Balaton-Europe.

New World wines come from Latin America, Australia, America, South Africa and New Zealand. Faced with an unbridgeable time gap these growers have had to develop new technologies to insure the quality of what they grow. Whatever the methods used many New World have managed to come up with a lot of good wine. In the case of Latin America and Australia and South Africa this wine is often a very good value. The Southern Hemisphere growers are helped by a climate that changes little so there are fewer vintage variations. However, many wine drinkers are of the opinion that this homogeneity has come at the cost of less interesting wine. Much of the wine from these regions does not bear a recognizable thumbprint of the soil from which it sprung. A good deal of the pleasure of wine drinking is developing the ability to recognize and grow fond of a certain region. By removing this element of the earth much of the interest in wine is reduced.

While generally deploring much of the wine of the New World, the Old World is being forced to take notice. Australian wine has displaced French wine as the top import to the British Isles. Many traditional makers are employing some new techniques to insure a better, more marketable product.

Taken from: http://www.wineworlddelivery.com/blog/

No comments: